The 2026 World Cup was full of controversies. It was attended by dodgy refereeing and FIFA misadministration/ bias.
Coincidentally most of the cases of the foregoing involved just one great country, Argentina. The only one not involving Argentina had to do with the US Men National Team (USMNT). FIFA bowed to the pressure from Donald John Trump Jnr (DJT), the American president. He had put pressure on FIFA to cancel the red card received by the USMNT's Folarin Balogun which was to effectively make him ineligible to play against Belgium in the Round of 16. FIFA ungraciously did DJT's bidding hiding under one of the clauses of the rules of the game. Article 27 of the FIFA disciplinary code was invoked. Admittedly, this was not the first time FIFA would do this- they did it in 1962 for Brazil's Garrincha and very recently in 2025 for Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo was given a red card in the match against Republic of Ireland and was supposed to be banned for 3 matches, which effectively would have kept him away from the start of the 2026 world cup but FIFA suspended two of the matches. It is noteworthy that there was no government pressure from Brazil and Portugal in the cases above and since FIFA has always been against direct government interference in football administration it becomes very preposterous that they could be directly pressured by DJT.
However, like i said above, most of the controversies have Argentina's name written on them. Most football fans believe that FIFA wanted Argentina to win the world cup and this was evident by what FIFA's president Gianni Infantino said after Argentina's match against Egypt. He said, "i suffered with Argentina." How can that statement be credited to an umpire who is supposed to publicly show nonpartisanship? From that moment onwards we didn't need any other evidence.
Very funny and shameful.
Before then we had witnessed some wrong and blatant refereeing calls in favour of Argentina. However, even if we are willing to wave all that away, Argentina's squad showed great negative gamesmanship during the presentation of the 2026 trophy to Spain. Apart from the fact that they refused to honour Spain with the traditional guard of honour the whole Argentinian squad (including their handlers), except Flaco Lopez, turned their backs on the ceremony.
Let me leave the 2026 world cup and try to point out a few other controversies involving Argentina.
Now let me say here that the Albicelestes (the Argentina National Football Team) has always been blessed with great footballers- Mario Kempes (mainly 1978), Daniel Passarella (mainly 1978 & 1982) Diego Maradona ( mainly 1986), Lionel Messi (present) and a lot of other stars. The country has never suffered from a dearth of great footballers.
The 1978 world cup was hosted and won by Argentina but there was a major controversy. To qualify for the final Argentina had to beat Peru by at least 4 goals in order to overhaul Brazil, who had beaten Peru by 3 goals and had a goal difference advantage. Argentina won by 6-0! The controversy stemmed from the fact that Peru had in goal Ramon Hector who was born in Argentina and previously played for Argentinian clubs Rosario Central and Independiente. Indeed, till this day, not a few people believe that the match was fixed.
At Espana '82, as defending champions, Argentina had the hugely talented Diego Armando Maradona leading the line but his world cup ended in an avoidable shame- he earned a red card with his kung fu tackle on Brazil's Batista.
We can say that Mexico '86 was Maradona's tournament both positively and negatively. Maradona put up a great show in the quarterfinal match versus England dribbling past about 5 English players to score the second goal but this was only after his "hand of God" goal made it 1-0 in their favour. Of course this has left behind a sour taste for fairness in football.
At Italia '90 Argentina was not particularly good but crawled their way to the final, against Germany. Argentina played like butchers in order to stop the German players and they collected 2 red cards. That final was the most violent final the world had witnessed up until then. In fact, out of a total of 6 red cards given in the final matches of the world cup 3 have gone to Argentina.
The 1994 world cup took place in the USA and Maradona's involvement ended in the group stage when he tested positive to a banned drug, Ephedrine. The test was conducted after the match against Nigeria.
Football is a beautiful game and we look forward to a new era of Argentina national team, and indeed any other team, devoid of controversies.
Jogofully yours,
Rotimi Oladipo
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